Scope and Content: The Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children conducted at the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind from 1848 was incorporated by Massachusetts as the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth in 1850.  It was renamed Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded in 1883 and Walter E. Fernald State School in 1925. –As a residential treatment center and educational facility for mentally retarded persons in Massachusetts, the Walter E. Fernald State School is responsible for providing diagnostic services for its clients.  In fulfilling this function, the school and its immediate predecessor administered psychometric tests measuring client mental age and intelligence quotient (IQ) to assist in diagnosis and treatment.  Psychometric test files, containing completed record sheets for the Stanford revision of the Binet-Simon tests (and predecessors), were created for each client tested.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by client
Restrictions: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
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Scope and Content: The Psychopathic Dept. of Boston State Hospital was established in 1912.  It became Boston Psychopathic Hospital in 1920; that was renamed Massachusetts Mental Health Center in 1956.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by overlapping time span, thereunder alphabetically
Restrictions: Mental health client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123, s 36. For conditions of access consult repository
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Scope and Content: The Boston Lunatic Hospital was established as a municipal agency in 1839; it was renamed Boston Insane Hospital in 1897.  It was made a Massachusetts state agency under the name Boston State Hospital in 1908 and closed in 1981.
Arrangement: Arranged by psychiatric ward registration no. (chronologically assigned)
Notes: Box 1: No. 410-568. Box 2: No. 571-725. Box 3: No. 726-869
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Scope and Content: The Division of Family Health Services of the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health was established in 1969, and replaced successively by the Bureau of Parent, Child, and Adolescent Health ca. 1988 and the Bureau of Family and Community Health by 1992.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically (1981-1987 by month, 1988-1992 by year), thereunder alphabetically by first letter of client surname
Restrictions: Personal medical information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 4, s 7, d 26(c) and c 66A. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: File dates begin 1981; through 1985 may include earlier certification for same client.
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Scope and Content: The Dept. of Public Welfare has the responsibility to provide and administer a comprehensive public welfare financial assistance program (MGLA c 18, s 2).  Decisions concerning policy and procedures of the department, largely by staff of the Division of Public Assistance, were excerpted from meeting minutes or correspondence.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically (1953-1958, 1959-1962), thereunder alphabetically by subject, and then chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Subdivision of Research and Statistics was established in the Division of Aid and Relief (Dept. of Public Welfare) in 1937.  By 1939 it was renamed Bureau of Research and Statistics and by 1940 was an independent unit within the department.  It was renamed successively: Division of Research and Planning (1970), Division of Statistics and Analysis (1971), Office of Research and Planning (mid-1970s), Office of Research and Evaluation (1979), and Office of Research, Evaluation, and Planning (1983)
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by month
Notes: Reports for 1968 lacking
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Scope and Content: The Dept. of Public Health protects the health of Massachusetts residents by maintaining state health facilities, regulating private health facilities, controlling disease, and regulating food, drugs, and other consumer products. During the decades directly following its  establishment in 1919 as the latest in a succession of state public health agencies dating back to 1869, the Dept. of Public Health published a large number of pamphlets and leaflets designed for public distribution. Topics covered include food and nutrition, dental health, vaccination and disease prevention, and child health care. Series consists of a selection of such publications, some of which are reprints or later editions of earlier titles.
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Scope and Content: Setting of rates to be paid by Massachusetts state agencies to health care institutions (and, from 1975, the approval of all hospital rate increases) was the responsibility successively of the Division of Hospital Costs and Finances (1954-1962, within the Commission on Administration and Finance), the Bureau of Hospital Costs and Finances (1963-1968, within the Executive Office for Administration and Finance), and the Rate Setting Commission (1968-1996, within the Executive Office of Human Services (Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) from 1992)–also known as the Massachusetts Rate Setting Commission).  The commission was succeeded in 1996 by the executive office’s Division of Health Care Finance and Policy. From 2003 rates for hospitals were set by  EOHSS itself, as were rates for other health care institutions from 2012, when the division was succeeded by the Center for Health Information and Analysis. The center, tasked with collecting and providing  analysis of data to assist in the formulation of health care policy, continues to maintain rate setting records.  Public hearings convened by the current rate setting agency are required in order to adopt or amend rates or related regulations. After issuing notice, holding hearings, and observing a public comment period, the agency files rules and regulations with the state secretary for codification in the Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR).  Series was created to document these public hearings.
Arrangement: In three subseries
Notes: Formerly included: Business meeting minutes, now cataloged separately as: (M-Ar)2685).
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Scope and Content: Per GL 1921, c 121, s 23, the Massachusetts commissioner of public welfare investigated defective housing, studied operation of building and tenement house laws, encouraged creation of local planning boards, and promoted formation of organizations to increase the number of available homes. These functions then passed successively to the State Board of Housing (Dept. of Public Welfare–St 1933, c 364), State Housing Board (Governor and Council–St 1948, c 260, ss 3-6), Division of Housing (Dept. of Commerce and Development–St 1964, c 636), Dept. of Community Affairs (St 1968, c 761), Division of Housing and Community Development (Dept. of Economic Development–St  1996, c 151, s 125), and Dept. of Housing and Community Development (St 1997, c 43, s 40), which currently offers programs, housing, and funding to communities to serve those with low to moderate incomes. Its functions are described in MGLA c 23B.
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Scope and Content: The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts appointed a Court Monitor in 1979 to administer court consent decrees relating to five state schools for the mentally retarded. In 1986 the responsibility was transferred to the gubernatorially established Office of Quality Assurance for the Mental Retardation Consent Decrees. In 1993 oversight was transferred to a Governor’s Commission  on Mental Retardation, while specific quality assurance functions were placed under an Office of Quality Enhancement, Office of Quality Management, Dept. of Mental Retardation, which had taken over responsibility for the mentally retarded from the Dept. of Mental Health in 1986.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: From the records of the Governor’s Commission on Mental Retardation, transferred to  Archives, 1994-2008. For details consult the Massachusetts Archives series control file. Box 1: 1993-1996. Box 2: 1996-2001. Box 3: 2002-2004. Box 4: 2005-2007
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